Myal

I... I'm honestly impressed you managed to whip out that image so quickly... We are!

The twist is: "roda" is actually an Indonesian word as well. Haha. In any case, great list! I always think that Indonesian words and names are very fitting for a fantastical setting. I was this close to using my real name for my character, but then figured that it'd feel weird.

Wait! I thought now is 2:30? Is it that daylight saving thingie in effect? [EDIT]: Aw, it is, isn't it? I'm sorry I didn't make it...

I thought... I thought this was for Saturday... Yar, it was for Saturday where I am and then the time got jumbled up in my mind then I thought it was for Saturday there and... I am very, very sad right now.

Can't wait! I'll go with Fulala, a level 19 MRD.

I... detest this. I actually quite like FF XIII, and I don't hate Lightning. But somehow I really, really hate this. Perhaps I just dislike dimension-hopping elements in general. Yes, I know it's not unprecedented and yes, I'm aware that this being FF, there would be a perfectly logical, convoluted, FinalFantasy-ish reason for it to happen. So yes, this might be just an irrational hatred on my part. Oh come on, are these really necessary? I am well aware that I need to "deal with it", but these dismissive gloating are not helping.

Most are probably old players. They were quite a few Japanese players in Besaid.

Yar, actually, I don't really know about the trend. Hopefully there are room for various styles.

Mm, note that I completely disassociate the "story character" from the "RP character". I agree that the story character is a great warrior, a small percentage of a small percentage of the population. However, Myal the RP character is not that. She doesn't have dangerous encounters on a daily basis. She'd probably never see Ifrit all her life. If by some creative writing she actually met him, she'd probably be an enslaved drone, useless on the sidelines (so invite me to these events at your own risk, haha). Frodo is an extreme example, of course, but it's still an example of how a weak character could survive, no matter how he survived it. Myal is by all means not Frodo. She's good enough to beat an unskilled bandit in a one-on-one battle, but would most likely lose when outnumbered or ambushed. She's competent enough to not be a hindrance in a crowd battle against a random, large beast, but would probably run away when things go south. If this was an action movie, she'd be the one who knocks the strong bad guy from behind while he's busy fighting the strong good guy. Surely (I hope) this style of RP is a valid choice? Aa, then I agree. Provided they are talented and/or hard working warriors.

With respect, I feel that the main scenario quest of 2.0, as revealed so far in beta 3, does make it pretty clear that there are many such people. They are, however, a minority of adventurers, who are themselves a minority of characters in the game world. That minority, though, is written such that it includes all PCs. I don't really get that impression, though? Could you explain a bit more? We do have a spoiler tag! Sure, untrained people would have higher chances to die in this dangerous world, but I'm sure that the majority still survive. Else how could society persevere? Sure there are hundreds of people who died in epic battles, but surely hundreds survive, too? Does that mean that all hundreds of them are battle experts? That's the point about Frodo, though. Our character is the main hero of our own story. There could be many reasons why a character could survive mortal, dangerous odds without resorting to "they're just a natural born warrior", just like Frodo. And anyway, Merry and Pippin survived, too. I'm not saying that he'd be ridiculously slow with a dagger. I'm saying that he'd be slower. And that he doesn't really have any reason to do so, considering that knives have served him well. NFL players learn MMA to gain edge in the field, but would a skill in axe-swinging lend anything to a knife fight? You said that an MMA athlete outperform others who only train in one particular style, but aren't they all hand-to-hand combat? Wouldn't a person who is skilled in sword arts be better served in learning other various sword styles rather than suddenly picking up a lance? Bear in mind that I have nothing against those who want a character that's proficient in multiple weapons, especially if it's related to their livelihood. I'm just explaining the rationale behind a character who prefer to just hone their skill with a single weapon.

Doesn't that just give more ground for the idea that players learn class/job skills easier than non-players? If the quest lore even acknowledges that we as players can learn skills that would take a normal person years to learn, and it only takes up a few weeks or so, then it would stand to reason that the game already justifies playing a character who has unlocked the potential of all guilds. This is coming back to the story/RP segregation discussion, isn't it? I consider the "story player character" and the "RP character" separate people altogether. There are of course this particular, special person who could learn year-long skills in weeks. There's nothing that suggest that there are many of such a person, and my RP character is not one of such amazing geniuses.

Aaa, but if a rich man goes bankrupt he ceases to be rich. When a count goes poor, he's still a count.

But isn't Ul'dah a sultanate? There should be a concept of nobility there, even if only for show and title. Though I do consider royalty "nobles".

I'd love to be a part of this!

Considering that the whole WAR quest is about stopping a character who fails at being a berserker despite having a lifetime of training as one, I'd say it's pretty hard. Also, people in the PUG guild quest make comments like "Whoa, it took me years to learn that!" Mmm, I don't think having an Echo automatically means that you are good at battle. There are some non-combatants in the Path of Twelve, after all.

Does a knack for surviving automatically imply skill in combat, though? Maybe a character is just quick on their feet. Maybe they're cunning and avoid dangers to begin with. Maybe they're just plain lucky. After all, Frodo survived that crazy journey of his and I'm pretty sure he would never be able to wield a halberd even if he trained all his life. I'm not sure about that. Suppose there is a knife expert. He doesn't have extraordinary strength: he just has good stamina, a nimble feet to close in on enemies and the precision to strike soft, weak points. Could he wield a great axe? Could he even lift the thing? You might argue that considering that he's talented in combat, if we gave him some months to train, he'd be able to use the great axe reliably. But then he'd be less nimble due to all the lifting muscles he'd develop. His hands would be less accurate due to the heavy strain he'd constantly give them. He'd be less of a knife expert. Why would he learn a great axe at all, then? From his point of view, it'd be better to just continue to hone his skills with knife, to be even more effective using the ability that had served him well all his life. Noooo! Please don't take my questions as any sort of an attack. I'm honestly curious what do you mean by "lvl IC-ly".

I'm sorry, but could you explain this more? In what situation could this happen? How could somebody "lvl ICly", anyway, considering that "level" is a separate concept from narrative to begin with?

Actually, F'lhaminn is a moonkeeper who, for reasons currently unknown, was adopted by the bear tribe. Whether both her parents were moonkeepers, or one was a moonkeeper and one was a sunseeker is unknown. But the lore post on her says she is most definitely a moonkeeper. :> Boo, I meant that F'lhaminn is culturally a Seeker. So this is still totally applicable to Myal's case. Yes.

Yar. My character is not a talented warrior, though. She's merely "somewhat competent". She's still fairly young. She became good at hand-to-hand combat mostly through brawling. She has a little experience using a spear that she could fight with it, but not really great at it, and she's hopeless in archery due to unsteady hands. Most people don't need to be proficient with an assortments of weapons, so they don't practice with them, so they can't really use them, even if they potentially could if only they train. That's the reason I pick only one main class ICly for Myal: she's "most people".

I had a great time! I was playing Fulala Fula, if anyone remembers. Sorry if I didn't say much; I was fairly unprepared and the character I made on the spot is the type who doesn't really speak up unless annoyed. So... in retrospect, probably not a good idea for mingling purpose.

Aa, if we are to more away from the visual representation, then yes, I do prefer my character to look a little worse for wear, considering her history and occupation. Though, I don't think most RP-er would go out of their way to textually describe how pretty their characters are to begin with. (but I'm new at this; what do I know)

I'm in an exact same situation, only reversed. Myal is culturally a Keeper, but she has the Seeker's slit pupils. I usually refer to F'lhaminn to convince myself that it's alright (she's a story character who is a Seeker, but with appearance of a Keeper).

I'll try harder to attend this time.

These are adorable! Here's my attempt on Myal: ... Why does she looks like an anime boy protagonist instead...

It might be a harsh world but it is also a pretty world. Sure, there was destruction and chaos, but that was five years ago. Now what we see are cities rebuilt, standing majestically, and beautiful landscape. This also extends to the inhabitants; Not one of the pirates have rotten teeth. Not one of the beggars have amputated limbs. You could go the the poorest region of Ul'dah, full of refugees, and all of them look healthy, wearing clean clothes. My character is supposed to have a pretty large scar across her face, but what they gave us are thin lines that barely qualify as a wound mark. Uther (I hope you don't mind me using you as an example) described the appearance of a messy, tired man, but then I looked at the picture and instead saw this very handsome hunk of a guy with hair befitting of a Korean pop idol. The easiest way to make a "rough" looking character is to make a roegadyn or a highlander, I guess, but even them have perfect skin and shiny hair. Point is, mmm... I don't know how to convey this adequately... I think that appearance in this game is very superficial in terms of communicating a character's history and a character's relation to the world, as the game itself doesn't fully use visual to depict the intricacies of its setting. Hence how a character looks becomes something of a non-issue to me: they're all pretty-looking people in a pretty-looking world.